Market Studies

With housing prices on the rise across the nation, and double-digit increases in some markets, CoreLogic quashes any fears of another housing bubble forming any time soon. After a 7.3 percent price gain in 2012, the nation's housing prices will continue to rise over the next five years but at a slower pace, according to the CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes. The indexes forecast a 3.9 percent annual increase through 2017. Meanwhile, many of the markets that underwent the greatest price depreciation during the housing crisis are now experiencing the greatest price appreciation.

The median price for a home in the San Francisco Bay Area climbed above the half-million mark in April for the first time in almost five years, according to DataQuick. The median price paid for a home in the nine-county Bay Area was $510,000 in April, up 17.0 percent month-over-month and 30.8 percent year-over-year. The monthly increase is the highest on record in DataQuick's Bay Area statistics.

While low inventory continues to curb home sales, April may have seen the first signs that the supply situation is turning around, RE/MAX says in its latest National Housing Report. According to RE/MAX, the months' supply of homes for sale at the April's sales pace was 3.6 months--the lowest supply since the National Housing Report began in August 2008. However, the company observed a monthly increase in April in the overall number of homes for sale--the first since June 2010.

According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.51 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending May 16, a significant climb from last week, when it averaged 3.42 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed averaged 3.79 percent and falling. According to Bankrate's weekly national survey, the benchmark 30-year fixed rate climbed to 3.71 percent, an increase of 11 basis points.

According to Zillow, in 64 percent of U.S. metros, buying is more affordable than renting if homebuyers plan to stay in their home for at least three years. In several large metros, it would only take around two years before a buyer reached what Zillow called the ""breakeven horizon,"" or the time it takes for buying to become more financially advantageous than renting. Out of the 30 largest metro areas, Zillow found Miami and Detroit had the shortest breakeven timeline of just two years in the first quarter. In New York, buyers would need to stay in their homes for 5.2 years before reaching the breakeven horizon.

Among California homeowners encountering foreclosure, those with higher loan amounts tended to hold on to their homes longer than those with lower loan amounts, according to ForeclosureRadar. The firm determined a difference in foreclosure timelines of 270 days between loans of less than $417,000 and loans of more than $550,000. ""Perhaps the difference lies in the fact that more affluent homeowners have the means to tap into resources to help delay foreclosure, or that larger loans on expensive homes are more complex and take longer to disentangle,"" ForeclosureRadar explained.

On a national level, the relationship between building permits and foreclosure starts resembled that of a seesaw in the first quarter, with an equal but opposite rise and fall, but in some markets, both permits and foreclosures are on the rise, according to a report from RealtyTrac. After analyzing data from HUD, the online foreclosure marketplace found single-family building permits increased 27 percent year-over-year in the first quarter to the highest level in five years, while foreclosure starts fell 27 percent during the same time period to the lowest level since the second quarter of 2006.

First time claims for unemployment insurance for the week ended May 11 rose 32,000 to, 360,000, the highest level since the end of March, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected initial claims to increase to 330,000. First time jobless claims for the week ended May were revised up to 328,000 from the originally reported 323,000.

In sharp contrast to reports of improving builder confidence, housing starts plunged at the steepest rate in more than two years in April, falling to a five-month low even as housing permits surged, the Census Bureau and HUD reported jointly Thursday. The 16.5 percent month-to-month drop in starts to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 853,000 caught economists by surprise. The consensus forecast had been starts would fall--but to 969,000 from March's originally reported 1,036,000.

From January through March, servicers implemented 244,933 loan modifications, according to HOPE NOW. At the same time, 83,394 borrowers avoided foreclosure through the short sale process. This brings the combined total for loan modifications and short sales to 328,327 for the first quarter. Meanwhile, HOPE NOW data showed foreclosure sales fell 14 percent to 161,641. Although foreclosure sales were down, foreclosure starts increased 30 percent in the first quarter to about 472,000.